15 Best Brunches in Los Angeles

Anyone who thinks brunch is for amateurs hasn’t eaten the mid-day meal in LA lately.

Anyone who still thinks brunch is for amateurs hasn’t eaten the mid-day meal in Los Angeles lately. Sure, you could do the obvious and have a boozy celeb-spotting brunch at the Ivy, but our hack for a memorable meal is to go to a place that’s known for being a great restaurant first, and a brunch spot second. These fifteen world-class restaurants will yield culinary delight, from house-cured fish, to micro-seasonal vegetables prepared in inventive ways (with micro-seasonal cocktails as a bonus), to Insta-worthy açai bowls in equally photogenic settings. No eggs Benedict in sight.

Our editor calls Gjusta "perhaps the best modern deli in the country"—so you know you're onto something good. If you go, prepare to have to work to make your order - but once you taste how good it is, all the frustration of getting it will slip away. It's hard for us not to recommend everything—but the smoked fish platters and flaky pastries keep us coming back, even if it means overhearing Venice's actors and musicians at the bar.

A cheery, low-pressure brunch in a neighborhood that can feel painfully studied. You’re going to eat like you’re in California, with all the friendliness too often missing from the equation in Venice. The Toasts section boasts, yes, avocado and ricotta varieties, but the avo is spiked with pickled fresno chiles, and the ricotta features a rotating seasonal jam of the week. Mining the neo-retro deli trend, there’s also gravlax (for the retro) and chia pudding (for the neo).

Since this is from James Beard Award-winning restaurateurs Suzanne Goin and Caroline Styne, you owe it to yourself to taste some top-level seasonal produce. Opt for a tavern trio for the table, with small plates and salads like farro with peas, fennel, and mint pistou. You’d be remiss not to ground your meal in some hardcore brunch classics like lemon ricotta pancakes for the table. In a cosseting space that whispers posh in a way few restaurants in LA can do. A rare instance where you’ll wish you’d tried at least a little with your outfit—even at brunch.

This sunny little café is full of Instagram catnip and zeitgeisty food designed to make you happy (we're looking at you, blue algae granola bowl). This is food designed to make you happy. You’re going to have to get the live blue algae granola bowl because it looks so zeitgeisty. You're probably getting something fried, because the chef has generously studded the healthy menu with a few trending ingredients: the breakfast burrito has tater tots in it and the poached egg comes with corn fritters.

It’s big, it’s industrial, it’s noisy, and there’s a bar nobody’s afraid to use at any time of day. It’s a little schizophrenic, but you’re going to find your perfect match: what other restaurant serves a cacio e pepe at brunch that’s spiked with miso? Or a pepperoni pizza? You also can get oat pancakes, shakshuka and other more trad morning dishes, all well-sourced and executed by a top-notch kitchen crew. You could come here for the drinks alone and give it a thumbs up on social.

Dressed-down locals, freshly decamped from Teslas and Rovers, eat in their yoga clothes and puffy vests fresh from a class or a hike, or before heading to nearby farmers market. These are foodies for whom heirloom has significance beyond tomatoes. It’s all about the ingredients and familiar preparations. There are shoutouts galore to local farms on the menu, and it’s not just an act (they were among the leaders in the farm-first movement in L.A.), so you’ll get Frog Hollow peach pepperonata with your chicken liver mousse, and Windrose farm kale in your poached (aka Sous vided) chicken salad.

Everything, and we mean everything, is good, thanks to the efforts of Zoe Nathan and Josh Loeb, the dynamic duo behind some of Santa Monica’s best restaurants. The commitment to sourcing from the best local farms shows. This is the place to embrace the sweet, the baked, and the well-sourced. This isn’t trendy food, but it is what Southern California all-day dining epitomizes: fresh, local, casual at a high level of execution. The crowd is an amalgam of casually dressed Santa Monica denizens who are here for well-sourced dishes and indulgent baked goods.

This is how grown-ups eat: at a restaurant with a proper hostess (and stand), a dark wood bar, waiters in ties, banquettes. You’ll be glad you changed after the gym. We all come here to toast classic California brunching and the excellent food of star chef Suzanne Goin with a glass of vivacious bubbly. The bacon-wrapped date? It was invented here. Similarly the food, groundbreakingly local and seasonal when the restaurant first opened more than 15 years ago, leans toward the richer side of the So Cal spectrum. The hash is made with duck confit. The soft scrambled egg sandwich is enrobed with Hook's cheddar and Hobb's bacon, and spiked with horseradish crème fraîche. This is food designed to, above all, satisfy.

This is one of the rare restaurants that not only serves a killer lunch and dinner, but also treats brunch as a separate and equally important meal. It's a front-of-mind mission: there are no also-rans, repeats, or lazy moves. Instead, it’s innovative and indulgent. You’re here to eat and eat well, so plan accordingly. Either book a hike just afterward to recalibrate, or a nap. The question is, how are you going to decide what to indulge in: the pork belly sausage breakfast sandwich? The fried chicken and waffle? The pork adobo fried rice? The duck confit chili? It's by far the richest, boldest, most satisfying brunch on the West Coast.

You’ve been in any number of bakery cafes, and at first, this looks like another well-thought part of the trend. Then you notice among the beautiful pastries there are surprises, like harissa lamb meatballs. Suddenly, you're glad you're here and you're no longer in an “I'll just grab a pastry” mode. Quinn and Karen Hatfield are Mid-City restaurant royalty, and this is where they indulge their sweet tooth. The preposterously satisfying pastries, like the salted caramel babka and chocolate chip rye cookie, are some of the best in the city, but brunch is when you can tap into the couple’s full range of talent.

Not to be confused with its breakfast-only spot in West Hollywood, the Highland location is the winner because of its spaciousness, ease of parking, and multi-purpose, come-as-you are, high/low appeal. Maybe it’s meant seriously or maybe it’s done begrudgingly, but the avocado toast is as minimalist as it gets: a slice of toast. A sliced avocado on the side. It reads more like a joke, but shows off the sourcing and technique behind said avocado and said toast. Opt for the thick, bone-in pork chop served with creamy grits and two eggs, equally minimalist in its elemental presentation, but so much more than the sum of its parts.

This Cali-Southern restaurant in an indoor/outdoor intersection of the sprawling Hauser and Wirth gallery complex is an oasis in industrial chic DTLA. L.A. doesn’t have enough good Southern restaurants, so keep your order along those lines: grilled Texas quail and labneh are L.A.-meets-Texas go-tos. Chilaquiles with pulled pork are a given. Get the Redneck platter for the table: buttermilk biscuits, country ham, and deviled eggs. Brunch and some art should be a category of “how to while away a Sunday,” and this is the place to get the tradition going.

There will be a line. And that’s okay, because everyone in line knows it’s worth it. There will be a gritty street that doesn’t look like the Silverlake of the entry-level luxury SUV commercials. And that’s cool, too, because this is the still-funky part of Silverlake. Once in, get ready for the most satisfying healthyish, sometimes vegan (but often not) food in the city: the sorrel pesto rice is modern East side classic (add the housemade sausage, add the lacto-fermented hot sauce). You’ve waited this long for your seat, so get the Mosca breakfast sandwich with egg, chicken sausage, and griddled halloumi on a nigella whey brioche bun.

Coming from Sara Kramer and Sarah Hymason, the dynamic duo behind DTLA’s artisanal falafel counter Madcapra, the food is imaginative and impeccably sourced, and invigorating in a satisfying way. It’s not a brunch that will make you crave a nap. Get the deeply flavored shaksuka and the Turkish-ish breakfast to share. The latter is a greatest hits of salads and dips and breads from the menu, anchored by what is perhaps the best egg dish on the East Side: the kuku, a sort of frittata shot through with green herbs, studded with barberries and creamy white beans.

Josef Centeno has five other restaurants; this is the only one that leans vegetarian, and he’s having fun with it. It's full of flavor and smart technique, but made up mostly of local grains and hyper-seasonal produce. The ghee-enriched flaky flatbread and generous seasoning make it taste indulgent. The hand milled oats, rye porridge, and green piri piri rice with egg are brunchy and healthy.